Russian authorities rejected visa request and banned American journalist's re-entry for five years

MOSCOW—In a case with Cold War overtones, an American journalist says Russia denied him entry after deeming his presence there undesirable, though Russian authorities say the denial was punishment for overstaying a previous visa.

The journalist,
David Satter,
is an expert on Russia and adviser to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and had been living in Moscow since September. He said he found his most recent visa request had been denied when he tried to obtain the document at the Russian embassy in Kiev in late December.

David Satter in a 2012 photo
Reuters

The radio and online broadcaster, which is funded by the U.S. government and dates back to the early days of the Cold War, had been trying to secure him a correspondent residency visa.

Mr. Satter is a vocal critic of Russian President
Vladimir Putin
and said he believes he was banned for his critical views on Russia in the past. A Russian diplomat at the embassy in Kiev, he said, told him "the competent organs decided that your presence on the territory of the Russian Federation is undesirable."

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement Tuesday said Mr. Satter's application had been rejected because he had pleaded guilty to overstaying a previous visa in November and paid a fine, resulting in a five-year ban on re-entry. The ministry said hundreds of thousands of foreigners are prevented from re-entering Russia each year because of similar violations.

"This is just a smoke-screen, it's just nonsense," Mr. Satter said on Tuesday. "Even if it were true that I had overstayed a visa for a few days, you don't ban someone for five years from the country for that."

The incident comes amid tensions between the U.S. and Russia and is reminiscent of the Cold War era, when authorities in Moscow periodically expelled American journalists. Since the fall of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, however, few Western correspondents have been expelled, and many foreign journalists critical of the Russian government have been allowed to work in the country.

Mr. Satter is the author of "Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State" and a number of other books on Russia. He reported for the Financial Times in Moscow in the 1970 and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal's op-ed pages.

Foreign correspondents typically apply to Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for accreditation and then receive a temporary press visa that allows them to enter the country. Upon arriving, correspondents must exchange that visa before it expires for a renewable one-year journalist residency visa.

The ministry approved Mr. Satter's accreditation for RFE/RL. Mr. Satter said he entered the country last September on a business visa. Roughly two months later, he left to go to Prague, where he applied and received a temporary press visa that he said lasted only for a brief period. Usually, temporary press visas are issued for longer periods such as a month.

Mr. Satter said that when he arrived in Russia to exchange his temporary entry document for a renewable residency visa, the ministry told him his documentation wasn't ready and instructed him to wait in the country. By the time he received the documentation and went to pick up his permanent visa from Russia's immigration authorities, Mr. Satter said, his temporary visa had expired. Russian immigration authorities then accused him of violating the law by overstaying his visa.

Instead of contesting the court case, Mr. Satter paid the fine and left for Ukraine because he was told he could reapply outside the country and redo the process. In Kiev, he said, he received a case number from Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his new application, but when he showed up at the embassy there, the staff couldn't find the visa.

The staff instructed him to speak with a top Russian diplomat in the consular section, who was the one who told him his presence in Russia was "undesirable," Mr. Satter said.

An official at the ministry's press office said a case number doesn't mean a visa application is approved. The official said the words by the Russian consular diplomat in Ukraine were chosen "clumsily" but represented an explanation of Mr. Satter's rejection on the grounds that he had broken an immigration law.

Joanna Levinson, a spokeswoman for RFE/RL based in Prague, said the broadcaster was trying to gather information on the incident and "determine the best way to respond."